Are these hardwares compatible?

salman4u · Jun 28, 2012

Hello,

I am trying to upgrade my new machine but I want to do it myself. This is my 1st attempt at building system. After carefully reading reviewing feedback and my budget I have decided to select the below listed components. Can anybody let me know are they compatible or not?

Transcend 64 GB 2.5" SATA Solid State Drive

Asus GeForce GTX550 1GB DDR5 ENGTX550 TI DI/1GD5 Graphics Card

Seagate Barracuda 1 TB HDD Internal Hard Drive

Cooler Master eXtreme Power Pro 600 Power Supply

Intel Core i5 2500K Sandy Bridge 3.30 GHz 95 W 4 Core Desktop Processor

Intel DX79TO Motherboard

Corsair CMZ8GX3M2A1600C9 8 GB DDR3 SDRAM 1600 MHz Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory

Sony AD-7260S-ZS Internal DVD Writer - Black

Cooler Master Hyper TX3 EVO Intel CPU Cooler

Cooler Master Elite 335U Cabinet

LG E2051T 20.1 Inch SuperSlim Monitor

Is any of these hardware components incompatible with I5 2500K? If you have any other suggestions for selecting any other harwdware that can boost up my performance or lower my cost while having the same performance, please suggest. But my primary questions is whether they are compatible or not! Any help is appreciated.

Thank you.

boiler1990 · Jun 28, 2012

What's your budget for this build/upgrade?

What is the primary use(s) for this system (gaming, light/heavy video or photo editing, codes/number crunching, etc)?

Transcend 64 GB 2.5" SATA Solid State Drive

I would look at a better drive made by Intel, Crucial or Samsung, although it depends on what controller this drive will be using.

Asus GeForce GTX550 1GB DDR5 ENGTX550 TI DI/1GD5 Graphics Card

This won't be ideal for 1920x1080, but I don't know what your monitor resolution is going to be. Figure out what resolution you're going to be running at and look at benchmarks at those resolutions.

Cooler Master eXtreme Power Pro 600 Power Supply

Although CM's PSUs are getting better, I would personally buy a Corsair or Antec over Cooler Master. 600W is about the right size for this build.

Intel Core i5 2500K Sandy Bridge 3.30 GHz 95 W 4 Core Desktop Processor

Intel DX79TO Motherboard

On your budget, I would back down on the CPU and go for an i3-2120. You're overshooting your CPU needs and sacrificing your GPU quality, which will make a bigger difference in gaming performance.

Two problems with the motherboard:
1. The one you listed is X79, but the i5-2500K or i3-2120 will only run on H67/P67/Z68/Z77 boards.
2. I would buy a motherboard from somebody other than Intel if possible (Asus, Gigabyte, ASRock). You'll get some better power control and some extra features.

Corsair CMZ8GX3M2A1600C9 8 GB DDR3 SDRAM 1600 MHz Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory

RAM is RAM for the most part. I wouldn't spend more than $50 on this kit.

Cooler Master Hyper TX3 EVO Intel CPU Cooler

I would go for the Hyper 212+ or Hyper 212 EVO. If you're not intending to OC at all, just run the stock cooler (especially with the i3-2120).

salman4u · Jun 29, 2012

Hello boiler1990,

Thanks for the reply. I appreciate it. Based on your comments it looks like my configuration is totally wrong. Can you revamp the whole list that you would suggest for me? You have stated some of the components like Hyper 212+ etc but can you list down all of them like GPUs etc? That will help me to buy.

One thing though I can increase a bit on GPU but I need I5 2500k atleast. I don't want to buy I3. Please suggest best components as per your experience. I can compromise a bit on budget but not on quality.

Again thank you very much!

Regarding your question about primary use: it's for part time gaming and mostly for using Visual studio and other softwares. Yep, little bit of Photoshop too.

boiler1990 · Jun 29, 2012

What are you looking to spend overall on the whole system? I can't really make definitive recommendations unless I know what sort of budget we're going to have to balance here

The i5 makes more sense for the work you're looking to do - I assumed (wrongly) that you were just assembling a gaming PC like 90% of the people here.

As far as GPUs go, I would try to shoot for a 560Ti (or maybe the GTX 660 if it releases soon - unknown release date right now). I believe the programs you will be using will benefit from NVIDIA and CUDA, but you'll have to check since I don't know all of the programs you'll be using.

salman4u · Jun 30, 2012

Hi boiler1990,

I can spend upto $1400. Can you now recommend all of the hardware for my desktop?

boiler1990 · Jun 30, 2012

This is a rough list and has some leeway in it to cut down costs:

Primary Components

CPU - i5-3570K (215 after promo) - cheaper than a 2500K, and will be faster unless you want to really OC the CPU. The 2500K will OC better and will be a little cooler, but if you're not going past 4.2GHz you'll get better value from the 3570K
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116504

Motherboard - ASRock Z77 Extreme4 (115) - Solid manufacturer and a well-rated board. There are other options from Gigabyte, Asus, and MSI in the price range, but this has the best balance of features and value. I wouldn't spend more than $120 on a mobo TBH.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157293

Memory - Mushkin Enhanced Silverline 2x4GB DDR3-1600 (45.99) - Great brand, inexpensive RAM, and low profile heatsinks to clear the CPU cooler I will recommend.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820226217

GPU - EVGA GTX 670 2GB (400) - Running this model in my system and it absolutely crushes games. Wouldn't consider anything else.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130782

SSD - Crucial M4 128GB (130) - SSD prices went up slightly since the sales died off, but this is one of the best priced drives right now. Not the fastest, but one of the most reliable (and still incredibly fast).
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148442

Hard Drive - HGST Deskstar 7K1000.D 1TB 7200RPM (80 after promo) - The Deskstars were solid drives before WD bought Hitachi, and I would buy WD over Seagate (a little more reliable overall)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822145533

Case - Cooler Master HAF 912 (60) - Great mid tower with great airflow. The HAF cases are a bit larger than normal cases, so this mid tower will be a little larger than some others in the same price range, and you'll have some room to move around and organize cables.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119233

PSU - Corsair TX650V2 (90; 80 after rebate) - Even with the GTX 670, you only need ~500W. This is a superb PSU and will give you plenty of room to OC the GPU/CPU if need be.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139020

Accessories

DVD Drive - LITE-ON DVD Burner (18) - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827106289

W7 Home Premium 64-bit OEM (100) - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116986

23" Acer G235HAbd Monitor (140 minus another 10%) - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824009266

Cooler Master Hyper 212+ CPU Cooler (30; or 20 after rebate) - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103065

Grand Total - 1488.88
(I rounded earlier)

There are a few ways to cut this down below $1400 if it's a hard ceiling for you:

Cheaper RAM - DDR3-1333MHz and some of the less pretty no-heatsink modules will save you about $5-10

Cheaper Motherboard - there were some other Z77 boards that were in the $95 range (cutting off $20), but you can also run Sandy and Ivy chips on Z68 boards, which are very cheap now. You don't get the PCIe 3.0 from the CPU, but many boards have it and it's not that important right now.

Smaller Hard Drive - Going for a 500GB will be a worse value in terms of $/GB, but it will certainly cost less (though $80/1TB is a steal now)

Get a smaller/no SSD - 64GB is *enough* to get by with 64 bit Windows, but it's a very tight squeeze; I am looking to upgrade to a 128GB right now.

No DVD drive - do you actually use a DVD drive still? I do all of my games via Steam now, so I have no DVD drive.

Use the stock CPU cooler - it'll work fine unless you want to OC, and save you $30 from that total I gave you.

Let me know if you have any other questions.

salman4u · Jun 30, 2012

Thanks a lot!!

This is the most comprehensive list of accessories. Thanks a ton man for spending time for me. I am really grateful to you.

boiler1990 · Jun 30, 2012

Just note the date those promo codes, rebates, and sales end. Some of them are parts you won't be able to get a better deal on (like the hard drive) and you could buy them in smaller batches.

salman4u · Jun 30, 2012

Ok. Thanks. How about EVGA GeForce GTX 560 1 GB?

I won't be using so much for games as I said. Is EVGA GeForce GTX 560 1 GB sufficient and will work with this motherboard?

Also, instead of the RAM that you suggested will this RAM work:

CORSAIR 8GB DDR3 Vengeance 240-Pin SDRAM DDR3 1600

About SSD, does this cabinet support SSD or do I have to buy SSD's adaptor?

?

boiler1990 · Jun 30, 2012

Whoops, forgot about that.

What I would do is knock down the GPU by ~100 or so and invest that into an i7. The hyper threading will help primarily with your work, but if you're doing CAD/video/Adobe CS work you will still need a strong GPU. If you're not doing that type of work then the 550Ti or 560 would be fine. All the GPUs use PCI Express so they're all inter compatible.

The only issues with the Vengeance RAM is that it has extremely tall heatsinks that might block the CPU cooler (if you go aftermarket), and the heatsinks don't actually do much. DDR3 is extremely cool (even to the touch), so the heatsinks are really just for show.

According to Cooler Master's page, the HAF 912 has slots for 2.5" SSDs.

salman4u · Jun 30, 2012

Oh OK.

I am not from US and so I won't be able to use newegg

Can you please suggest RAM and GPU from this website:

http://www.theitwares.com/

I didn't find the RAM and GPU you stated on this website. You can suggest little powerful than this since I will be doing Photoshop too.

I will buying everything form this one. It has comparatively low prices in this part of world.

Again thank you very much

PS: or you can even suggest from this one: http://www.flipkart.com/

boiler1990 · Jun 30, 2012

The G.Skill RAM is very good. The heatsinks on these are lower and the RAM is cheaper.
http://www.theitwares.com/gskill-sniper-240pin-ddr3-sdram-ddr3-1600-12800-desktop-memory-model-f312800cl9d8gbsr-p-2254.html

The heatsinks on this on should be even smaller, and you'll have to buy two of these
http://www.flipkart.com/corsair-xms3-ddr3-4-gb-1-x-gb-pc-ram-cmx4gx3m1a1600c9/p/itmd2ryprvhxjqcu?pid=RAMD2RYPY7MHHHUV&ref=f38a26b1-74eb-44b8-b8e1-17e9e10e0f4b

As for graphics card, I would go with either the EVGA or ASUS cards. I listed the ones I would pick for each model (550Ti, 560, 560Ti). The 560 Ti is a great GPU; I owned one and it could handle most of my games on high if it couldn't do ultra.

http://www.theitwares.com/asus-engtx550-dcdi1gd5-geforce-192bit-gddr5-express-hdcp-graphic-card-p-2860.html

http://www.theitwares.com/evga-geforce-ddr5-maximum-graphics-edition-crysis-graphic-card-p-2313.html

http://www.theitwares.com/evga-superclocked-01gp31461kr-geforce-fermi-256bit-gddr5-express-hdcp-ready-support-graphic-card-p-2316.html

salman4u · Jun 30, 2012

Great! That's about it. No more questions

salman4u · Jul 6, 2012

boiler1990 :

Hi boiler1990,

I have an issue. Just need a quick guidance. Today my Arrock Z77 motherboard arrived and when I opened I found one of the heatsink was removed and it's screw was lying somewhere else. It was a spring. So I just put it back and fixed it. My question is, is this a serious issue? Will my motherboard work? All other parts of motherboard seem to look good.

boiler1990 · Jul 6, 2012

That's strange. Do you have any photos? I would take them (along with a piece of paper with your username on these forums) so that if anything goes wrong, you have evidence both photographic and this thread.

The heatsink is simply for the chipsets, and are generally held on by screws. However, a screw falling out could mean that it was just not assembled properly (pretty harmless) or that the motherboard had a bumpy ride to your front door and could be indicative of other damage.

If you experience any issues with the PC (damaged mobos can cause a variety of issues) like stuttering, drives/RAM not being recognized, or other oddities, I would immediately contact ASRock for an RMA. It's not much to get totally worked up over IMHO, but just be on the lookout for any problems.

salman4u · Jul 6, 2012

Hi boiler1990,

Thanks for quick reply. No I don't have any photos. I was very tensed when I saw my expensive motherboard arrived with one heatsink lying around. So I got put them back again.

The other parts look fine. Although I would be checking them soon and request for RMA

boiler1990 · Jul 6, 2012

Like I said, take some so that you have proof. Be thorough, because some companies won't do anything unless you have truly compelling evidence.

salman4u · Jul 6, 2012

boiler1990 :

Hi Boiler1990,

I took a photo of this. You can see a scratch on one of the heatsinks. Further this heatsink was removed and screw was lying somewhere else as I said.

Do you think this could have damaged heatsink?

boiler1990 · Jul 6, 2012

The heatsink is simply a piece of metal - as long as it's all there, it's fine (unless it's completely mangled). I can't see the pic right now (work PC blocks most photos on sites, including here), but I'll take a look when I get home.

You may just want to contact the retailer and then ASRock - they may replace it for free since it was technically not delivered as advertised.

salman4u · Jul 14, 2012

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Are these hardwares compatible?

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